J&K Radio, Doordarshan Performing Artists,Freelance Producers and Directors Association calls an emergency press conference to highlight the problems being faced by Artist Community in the State.

A Press Conference was called by the Association today, chaired by its President, Tariq Javeed, to highlight various problems being faced by the artists of the Valley, need of setting up Kashmir’s own film industry and threat of losing local language and culture to foreign programmes. It was stated that many artists of our valley have made a name of themselves in the Indian Film Industry, however, they have no platform available locally to showcase their talent.

The press conference was held at a local restaurant and was attended by many artists and film makers of the State. Attendees included Ashraf Shawl, Parvaiz Masoodi, Mushtaque Ali Ahmed Khan, Mushtaq Bala, Qazi Faiz, Gul Javeed, Altaf Hussain, Raja Majeed, Sheikh Haneef, Zahoor Zaidi, Farooq Afaaq, Manzoor Malik, Mushtaq Baqal, Ayoub Khan, Arshad Mushtaq, Haamid Bala and Showkat Usman. All the attendees unanimously raised their voice to notify the concerned authorities of the issues being faced by them.

President , Tariq Javed highlighted that the Association was started in 1972 to promote professionals associated with Radio, Doordarshan and films in the state and highlight their genuine problems before the concerned departments. The Association has always worked towards the promotion of our local languages including Kashmiri, Dogri, Pahari, Gojri and Ladakhi. The Association strongly advocates the use and promotion of these languages through the medium of television and film industry. During the press conference the association highlighted the grievances of the artists associated with Doordarshan Srinagar and Radio Kashmir. It was also stated that work and programmes for local artists have been stopped Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar and Kashir channel which was meant for artists of Kashmir has been defunct for last so many years now.

It was stressed that genuine and hard earned payments of many artists have not been released for the last 10 years by Doordarshan Kendra and as a result these artists are facing great financial crises and have been left without any work.

Mushtaq Bala strongly while criticizing the policies adopted by Doordarshan Directorate, New Delhi and DDK, Srinagar, condemned the fact that our local languages and programmes depicting our state’s culture are being ignored and instead non-local programmes and feature films irrelevant to Kashmir’s culture are being telecast on Kashir Channel round the clock and huge sums of money are being paid to people outside the state and artists and film makers from the valley have no source of livelihood. The Association while welcoming Mass Communication graduates with training for visual media as its significant part stated that highly educated youngsters who qualify degrees in mass communications and film making have no avenues available in the state to grow and our state government and concerned departments pay no heed to their needs. The Association requested the Hon’ble governor of the state of J&K and authorities associated with Radio, Doordarshan, Department of Information, Films Division and Doordarshan Directorate at New Delhi to take these issues seriously and find a solution for these through a collaborated effort with the artists and film makers of the Valley. At the conclusion Advocate Sheikh Rizwan Javeed, advocate J&k high court was nominated as the legal advisor of the Association.